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That which I once sarcastically referred to as click-thru syndrome
is now apparently called habituation. And it's being measured using
MRIs:<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://arstechnica.com/security/2015/03/mris-show-our-brains-shutting-down-when-we-see-security-prompts/">http://arstechnica.com/security/2015/03/mris-show-our-brains-shutting-down-when-we-see-security-prompts/</a><br>
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MRIs show our brains shutting down when we see security prompts<br>
<br>
This is your brain after repeated security warnings. Any
questions?<br>
<div itemprop="articleBody" class="article-content clearfix"> <br>
by <a itemprop="url"
href="http://arstechnica.com/author/dan-goodin/" rel="author"><span
itemprop="name">Dan Goodin</span></a> - <span class="date"
data-time="1426863180">Mar 20, 2015 2:53 pm UTC</span> <br>
<span class="s1">Ever feel your eyes glazing over when you see
yet another security warning pop up on your monitor? </span>In
a first, scientists have used magnetic resonance imaging to
measure a human brain's dramatic drop in attention that results
when a computer user is subjected to just two security warnings
in a short time.<br>
<br>
In a paper scheduled to be presented next month at the
Association for Computing Machinery's <a
href="http://chi2015.acm.org/">CHI 2015 conference</a>,
researchers will present data that maps regions of the brain
responsible for visual processing. The MRI images show a
"precipitous drop" in visual processing after even one repeated
exposure to a standard security warning and a "large overall
drop" after 13 of them. Previously, such warning fatigue has
been observed only indirectly, such as one study finding that
only 14 percent of participants recognized content changes to
confirmation dialog boxes or another that recorded users
clicking through one-half of all SSL warnings in less than two
seconds.<br>
<br>
Building a better mousetrap<br>
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The inattention is the result of a phenomenon known as <a
href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habituation">habituation</a>,
or the tendency for organisms' neural systems to show partial or
complete cessations of responses to stimuli over repeated
exposures. Such repetition suppression, or RS, has long been
documented in everything from sea slugs to humans. By directly
measuring RS in the brains of people exposed to computer
security warnings, the scientists were then able to test more
effective ways that software makers can alert people to
potential risks. The paper—titled "<a
href="http://neurosecurity.byu.edu/media/Anderson_et_al._CHI_2015.pdf">How
Polymorphic Warnings Reduce Habituation in the Brain—Insights
from an fMRI Study</a>"—is one of two to be presented at CHI
2015 that studies people's responses to security warnings. A
second paper is titled "<a
href="https://adrifelt.github.io/sslinterstitial-chi.pdf">Improving
SSL Warnings: Comprehension and Adherence</a>."</div>
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From Cryptogram: New research: "How Polymorphic Warnings Reduce
Habituation in the Brain -- Insights from an fMRI Study."
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://neurosecurity.byu.edu/media/Anderson_et_al._CHI_2015.pdf">http://neurosecurity.byu.edu/media/Anderson_et_al._CHI_2015.pdf</a>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://neurosecurity.byu.edu/chi_fmri_habituation/">http://neurosecurity.byu.edu/chi_fmri_habituation/</a>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://arstechnica.com/security/2015/03/mris-show-our-brains-shutting-down-when-we-see-security-prompts/">http://arstechnica.com/security/2015/03/mris-show-our-brains-shutting-down-when-we-see-security-prompts/</a>
or <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://tinyurl.com/pfqzume">http://tinyurl.com/pfqzume</a>
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